TALLAHASSEE – For tens of thousands of Floridians who represent themselves in family law cases there is now an app to help navigate the State Courts System and resolve legal problems with an innovative solution from the Florida Commission on Access to Civil Justice.
“This strikes at the heart of our efforts on the Access to Civil Justice Commission, to not only provide help to people who don’t have a lawyer but to make it easier for more people to know help is available,” said Chief Justice Jorge Labarga who also serves as chair of the Access Commission.
Florida Courts Help works on Apple and Android devices. The app offers in one place information for people seeking a divorce, adoption, orders of protection, name change, and other family law issues. The Florida Courts Help app is available now at the most popular app stores and instructions are also available at Help.flcourts.org. The app puts assistance at the fingertips with:
· 186 Supreme Court-approved family law forms that can be filled out on the device;
· Links and contact information for help centers all around the state;
· Plain-language instructions and descriptions of first steps and next actions;
· Pointers and contact for a full range of legal help from multiple online resources, free and low-cost legal services, lawyer referrals and other information, including eligibility criteria, and;
· User-friendly instructions for initial steps and pointers about what happens next.
Florida Courts Help seeks to help Floridians who represent themselves in family law cases. The family law forms available free on the Office of the State Courts Administrator website were downloaded more than 2 million times last year.
Members of the Commission on Access to Civil Justice recognize mobile is how more people use the internet. More than a third of American adults who earn less than $50,000 a year use the internet exclusively through their phones. Florida Courts Help makes concrete legal help accessible with the information Floridians need in the way easiest for them to use.
The Florida Commission on Access to Civil Justice seeks to address unmet civil legal needs of disadvantaged, low income, and moderate income Floridians to identify and remove economic and other barriers to civil justice. Read more about Florida’s Access Commission on its website.http://www.flaccesstojustice.org/
